Three Day Seminar onFOOD: REPRESENTATION, IDEOLOGY AND POLITICSDepartment of English, Jadavpur UniversityKolkata, IndiaDeadline 31 August 2006Conf.Dates 16-18 November 2006

The Centre for Advanced Studies, Department ofEnglish, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, isorganizing a three-day seminar titled Food:Representation, Ideology And Politics on 16, 17 and 18November, 2006.Food is a central part of our lives. However, in allcultures food has always represented more than just ameans of survival. Sharing food, eating salt, breakingbread, raising a toast, picnics in the wild, formaldinners, all have certain ideological, political andsocial significances. Some foods are taboo, designatedfilthy or circumscribed. Some foods are endowed withholiness or endow the eater with purity.Foods have also triggered colonial expansionism. TheSpice Route was one of the earliest trade networks.Revolts and revolutions have been sparked by theabsence of food. Marie Antoinette’s famous commentadvising the peasants to eat cake began a new era inworld history, while wars have been lost because ofhungry soldiers.Globalisation and consumer cultures have added newdimensions to the act of eating in restaurants and thekinds of cuisine available in various parts of theworld, while brands like Kentucky Fried Chicken, CocaCola or Pepsi have often been the targets ofanti-imperialist protests in India and elsewhere.The representation of food, eating practices, lastsuppers, and other aspects of food culture has alsobeen central to many texts.Abstracts are invited for this seminar. They shouldnot be longer that 500 words and may be sent byelectronic mail to the addresses given below or to

· Representations of Food and Eating Practices inLiterature· Cross-cultural Exchanges in the Area of Food· Food as a Marker in Defining Identity· Representation of Political or Social MovementsRelated to Food· Food in Popular Culture· The Gendering of Food-related Practices